MEF Data: Asia-Pacific Consumers Take Control of Their Personal Data Protection
There has been a dramatic pivot in personal cybersecurity in the Asia Pacific over the last five years, with more consumers taking responsibility for their own data privacy protections, according to MEF’s 11th Annual Consumer Survey.
The most striking development is the widespread adoption of two-factor authentication, with the use of SMS one-time passcodes (OTPs) to verify the user’s identity more than doubling from just 17% in 2020 to 45% in 2025. The 28 pp increase signals a mass acceptance of higher-friction login methods.
MEF Data: From Laggards to Leader – 2024 Merger Leapfrogs Spain’s MasOrange to Majority Market Share
The Spanish telecom market has experienced the most significant structural transformation of any major European market over the past decade. The 2024 merger between fourth-placed Masmovil and declining third-placed Orange Spain created MasOrange, a new entity holding 41.32% of the market — instantly dethroning Telefónica’s Movistar (25.95%) as the decades-long market leader.
MEF Data: More European and APAC Travellers Use Their Telco Plan When Abroad
More European and APAC travellers are using their usual mobile operator plans for connectivity while abroad, according to MEF’s 11th Annual Consumer Survey. In 2025, exactly half of European consumers on average said they use their usual mobile operator plan while travelling, up from a third in 2022, while in APAC, consumer usage of their usual mobile operator plan rose from 22% in 2022, to 31% in 2025.
MEF Data: At Least Two-Thirds of Consumers Globally Now Use a Meta Messaging App
Meta’s messaging apps WhatsApp and Instagram have become even more globally dominant since 2021, according to MEF’s 11th Annual Consumer Survey. More than two-thirds of consumers surveyed use WhatsApp to communicate with family and friends, up from 50% in 2021, and almost half use Instagram (34% in 2021). Both apps have more than 3 billion monthly active users, so the gap between the two in terms of use to communicate with family and friends is almost certainly due to Instagram’s heritage as a content sharing platform. On the flip side, Instagram’s ad revenues already contribute significantly to Meta’s coffers, whereas Meta is still in the relatively early stages of effectively monetizing WhatsApp as a platform for business communications; it also only started to enable advertising on WhatsApp in mid-2025. While both WhatsApp and Instagram significantly grew their penetration between 2021 and 2025, the app to watch is the ByteDance-owned TikTok, which has seen its global penetration almost double from 15% in 2021, to 29% by 2025. Like Instagram, the majority of TikTok’s revenues come from advertising, but it also generates income from brand partnerships, commission from sales on TikTok Shop, and revenue-share on virtual gifts.
MEF Data: MEA Focus on Spam Protection Significantly Reduces Unwanted Messages
Middle East and Africa is proving to be somewhat of a success story when it comes to preventing spam messages. Data from MEF’s 11th Annual Consumer Survey shows that in 2023, 60% of MEA respondents said they received annoying spam messages from companies they had never contacted before. But that spike clearly galvanised the business messaging ecosystem – including telcos – to institute spam detection and prevention measures, resulting in a 17pp drop by 2024, to 43%, which was sustained with another 2pp drop in 2025.
MEF Data: More Europeans Fear Accidental Subscriptions on Their Phones
Consumer confidence in the European mobile payment sector is facing a significant stress test, with data from MEF’s 11th Annual Consumer Survey exposing a widening crack in the user experience. The trend from 2022 through 2025 reveals that the fear of “accidental subscriptions” has become a mainstream anxiety affecting 34% of the population.
MEF Data: Good News: Companies Step Up Their Data Protection Education Game
There’s encouraging news from MEF’s 11th Annual Consumer Survey: across all income levels, more people report improvement rather than deterioration in how enterprises educate them on protecting their personal data. High-income households lead with 67% experiencing positive momentum, middle-income follows at 57%, and even among low-income households, a solid 54% see progress. The 28% of high-income families noticing significant improvement suggests two things: that companies view education about data protection as a safeguard which helps them retain their higher-spending customers, and that when companies invest in education, it works. The opportunity? Extending that same energy to the 26% of low-income and 28% of medium-income households who haven’t seen any change yet. The framework clearly exists – the will to make it universal is what’s missing.
The full report, and all survey data from over 11,000 respondents across 17 countries, is available to download from mef.mobi and click on MEF Data!
MEF Data: Malaysia’s Mobile Divide: iOS Users Triple as Android Growth Stalls
Malaysians have fallen in love with the iPhone over the last seven years, with the number of iOS broadband connections in Malaysia almost tripling from 4.5mn in 2017 to 12.9mn by 2024 – growing at a whopping 187%, according to MEF data. That means the number of iOS broadband connections as a proportion of total active mobile SIMs has increased from 11.1% in 2017 to 27.6% in 2024, while the number of Android broadband connections as a proportion of active mobile SIMs has dropped from a high of 72.3% in 2019, to 60.8% in 2024, plateauing at 28.4mn active mobile SIMs. With 46.6 million handset SIMs serving 28.8 million users in 2024 – including 25.1mn adult (15+) users – Malaysians maintain approximately 1.6 SIM cards per person on average. MEF’s data suggests that a significant number of Malaysians are either switching to iPhones completely, or at the very least owning an iPhone as well as an Android device.
Join us at the MEF Leadership Forum APAC in Kuala Lumpur, 22 January 2026, to hear more! All MEF Market Data is available to download from mef.mobi – click on Insights/MEF Data Downloads.
MEF Data: Trust In Large Retailers Remains High Despite Wave Of Cyberattacks
With the Holiday Season in full flow, and billions of us hitting the shops and online shopping sites, trust in how retailers handle our personal data has never been higher – despite a wave of high-profile cyberattacks throughout the year targetting several major brands including Adidas, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Cartier, the Co-op, Gucci, Harrods, Marks & Spencer (M&S), and North Face. Although these incidents have led to significant data breaches, operational disruptions and, in some cases, substantial financial losses, results from MEF’s 11th Annual Consumer Survey shows that overall trust in how retailers use and look after our personal data continues to improve year-on-year. 2023 was the turning point when a majority of consumers expressed trust in retailers for the first time – 56% up from just 44% in 2022. Since then, trust in how retailers look after our personal data has continued to rise – up to 57% in 2024 and 60% this year. The full report, and all survey data from over 11,000 respondents across 17 countries, is available to download from mef.mobi and click on MEF Data!
MEF Data: Security of Internet from Fraud is Seen to Have Improved – Depending Where You Live!
The security of the internet from financial fraud is generally seen to have improved in the past year, according to results from MEF’s 11th Annual Customer Trust Survey, but exactly how much it has improved depends largely where you live!
